


Guardian spirit

by Makiaru



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, M/M, Senju Butsuma's A+ Parenting, Senju Hashirama is an idiot, Senju Tobirama Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-11
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-18 04:08:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29977152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Makiaru/pseuds/Makiaru
Summary: Madara used to have a friend he met at the river once when waiting for him he met Hashirama.Now it's been ages  that he has seen his albino friend. Still he waits.After the village is built his friend shows up once more and he now has to answer a question he's never thought of. Is the village a way to protect the people and is he protecting them by caging them? He was told to ask Hashirama that question. If he, or the Senju, would he ever cage someone just to protect them. He didn't get an answer he liked.
Relationships: Senju Tobirama/Uchiha Madara
Comments: 2
Kudos: 62





	Guardian spirit

The Senju and the Uchiha clan had made peace quite some time ago and still Madara wandered to the river to find peace. He remembered a boy he met. A boy he’d been looking for when he’d come across Hashirama. A boy who he hadn’t seen since. “Will you come to me today?” He knew that the question was stupid. He knew that he wouldn’t see his friend today, or tomorrow, or next week. He hadn’t see his friend since he was nine and the boy roughly seven. Why now would he see him again. And yet he came. Every day if he knew he could get away with it. The friend he missed more than anything. He stayed there for almost an hour. Letting the calm wash over him.

“Why are you still waiting for me?” The voice was so much older than the last time Madara had heard it. “By now, why haven’t you given up?”

“Uchiha don’t give up.” Madara stared at the boy, no man now, before him. He couldn’t believe it. He never thought he’d see him again. Madara could see how the boy had grown up but he’d changed so little. Still the same white hair, the pale skin, and the red eyes. Madara had to swallow when he saw how much more beautiful the boy was now. “You came.” The only thing other than his age that had changed was that there were now three red lines on his face.

“And I have to go soon.” Was the only reply he got.

“I missed you.” Madara had missed him. Had missed the incredibly frustrating games of shogi where the boy kept beating him. He missed the endless discussions about jutsu and their origin. He missed the curious questions. He missed the desire for family. He missed the spars. He even missed how the boy could talk about any and everything but himself. “Why do you have to leave now?” A grimace was all the answer he got. Madara was sad to see that emotions showed even less on the boy’s face. “Things are safe now. We built a place where we can protect everyone.”

“There is no place that can protect everyone.” The boy argued.

“This is.” Madara was convinced. “This is.”

“Who will protect everyone?”

“I will.” He was confident he could beat everyone but Hashirama and Hashirama was on his side. “I will and my friend. Hashirama.”

The boy grimaced again. “Hashirama?”

“He’s really nice.” Madara said. “I never told you about him. But he’s really protective of his family too. He’s really protective of everyone."

“Protective enough to cage them?”

“Of course not!” Madara was horrified. “Everyone is free.”

The boy sighed. “Ask Hashirama that question. If he, or the Senju, would he ever cage someone just to protect them.” He tilted his head to the side. “I have to go now.” He paused before he started to turn away. “I missed you too.” He still didn’t quite turn yet. “Please don’t tell anyone about me.” He ended the conversation the same way he’d always done. Then he disappeared between the trees and Madara didn’t chase after him

Madara wanted to chase after him. He always wanted to chase after him. He knew it’d be a breach of trust but he still always wanted to chase after him. And now years later, it seemed like his friend was faster than ever. Madara got stronger but his friend has gotten faster. He wanted to ask where and when he’d learned that. He wanted to ask so many more questions. He wanted to know about where the boy came from. Where he went. He wanted to know why he’d never seen him on the battlefield. He wanted to know which clan he belonged to. He wanted to know his name. Clan. How had his friend known Hashirama’s clan.

* * *

“Madara, my friend, is something wrong?” Hashirama had been folding paper flowers for almost an hour now and he hadn’t been interrupted by Madara yet. Madara hadn’t screamed at him and berated him for not working. Hashirama had never seen Madara so quiet.

Madara shook his head. “Just thinking.”

“About what?” Hashirama was curious now. “Maybe I can help.”

Madara wanted to say that Hashirama couldn’t help until he remembered his friend’s question. Maybe Hashirama could help him. “You know, maybe you can.”

The smile Hashirama was so brilliant that Madara almost felt guilty for not confiding in him sooner. “Anything.”

“Can I pick your brain for a bit.”

A nervous laugh. “I always disliked that phrase. It sounds a little morbid right?”

Madara hummed. His friend liked that phrase. “It’s about something someone said. That to keep people safe you lock them up in a golden cage. Is that what we’re doing? Locking people up in here, keeping them from war, and protecting them. Caging people in the name of protection?”

“No!” Hashirama said horrified. “No! Everyone can leave if they want. And we have people do missions. Sure we keep them safe and away from all the dangerous things. Especially the children. But we don’t cage them! They can do whatever they want as long as they don’t hurt people.”

Madara sighed in relief. He had been unsure there for a bit. That was the issue with his friend, he always had questions and Madara never had answers. He was glad Hashirama had some for a change. Well he could ask Hashirama the second question without worry then. “Would you or the Senju ever lock someone up for their own protection?” He started to worry when his friend didn’t answer immediately. “Hashi?”

“When children are grounded because otherwise they’d do something stupid. Does that count?”

Madara released a sigh of relief. “No, that’s temporary. My question was more permanent.”

Hashirama looked thoughtful. “Is it wrong to keep people safe?”

Madara turned to his friend once more and had a sinking feeling that his albino had had a point here. “What did you do?”

“I didn’t do anything!” Hashirama exclaimed.

“WHAT DID YOU DO!?”

“Madara.” Hashirama backed up. “It’s not like that.”

“IT’S NOT LIKE WHAT!?”

“We don’t really lock them up.” Hashirama tried. “They’re ill. They might die if they leave the hospital. So we keep them there. It’s really nice. We don’t really lock them up. They can leave!”

Madara looked sick. How could his friend say that’s not really locking someone up? He didn’t see how that was any different than locking someone up for their protection. This was exactly locking someone up for their protection. He also understood the desire to keep someone safe. He more than once had wished he could lock Izuna up somewhere and keep him away from the battlefield. Away from Kawarama and his incredible ability with a sword and earth jutsu. But he couldn’t imagine locking up someone for life. If they really were sick, would it be assisted suicide if they let them go? Who were they in the first place? Was his friend one of them? Then again Hashirama had said that they could leave and his friend had more or less implied that he couldn’t. Over the years the albino had more than once hinted that he wasn’t allowed outside. Or at the very least not that far away. “Explain. Explain this to me in detail.”

Hashirama looked down. “I can’t.”

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU CAN’T!”

“It’s like that seal the Hyuuga use. It protects people and no one is allowed to know how it works. It’s a culture thing and you said we couldn’t interfere with those.”

“THE HYUUGA TORTURE MORE THAN HALF OF THEIR CLAN IF THEIR BEHAVIOR DOESN’T SUIT THE MAIN FAMILY! WE AGREED THAT WAS DISGUSTING! HOW DARE YOU DO THE SAME!”

Hashirama was getting angry. Madara didn’t think Hashirama could get angry. “We protect them. We don’t hurt them. We keep them safe and healthy. We don’t harm anyone.”

“YOU KEEP THEM LOCKED UP!”

“We don’t.” Hashirama shook his head. “They can leave.”

Madara wasn’t sure what to make of this. His friend had implied that he couldn’t leave. On the other hand he’d left more than once. Madara wanted to trust Hashirama but Hashirama was soo naïve sometimes. He wanted to trust his friend but he’d been incredibly vague. He might’ve meant something completely different. For now, he knew Hashirama better and he could trust him. He would trust him. And he would talk to Mito. Mito would know more.

Mito didn’t know more. She was surprised when Madara recounted the conversation with her husband and told him she’d never even heard of something like that. She then gave some prodding questions about how this conversation came to be.

Madara didn’t answer. He didn’t know if he could. He just thanked Mito and went on his way. He didn’t know what this was but Mito would’ve noticed something. Right? Maybe he’d been wrong and Hashirama had seen a small thing as something way bigger than it was and it had nothing to do with his mystery friend. He needed to talk to his friend again but he had no clue when they’d see each other again.

* * *

Two months. That was how long it took for Madara to see his friend again.

“The Naka is lovely to stare at.” His friend said looking over the water. “Do you want to spar? I wish to see how much we’ve improved.”

“I want to talk.” Madara wanted to spar. He wanted to get rid of all the excess energy. He wanted answers more.

His friend sank to the ground in seiza. “Talk then.”

“I have questions.” Madara started. He just wasn’t sure where to start with his questions.

“We all have. And we always have too few answers.”

“But there are answers.”

“There always are.”

“You have them.” Madara felt frustrated. He didn’t want to talk in circles around a subject and that was exactly the mood his friend seemed to be in.

The albino raised an eyebrow.

“Your name.” That was as good a place as any to start. He’d heard all the arguments over the years they’d been friends that he couldn’t have it but now he wanted it.

“We agreed that you could decide on it.”

Madara remembered that. When they were young and Madara kept asking for a name and his friend kept denying him. There had been an offer that Madara was allowed to think up a name and call him whatever he liked. Madara switched between names every time they met. Eventually he just gave up and went back to his friend being nameless. “You agreed that I could decide it. I just want your real name.”

The man backed up. “You said you had questions, but this seems to be the only one.”

“You told me last time that you were locked up for your own protection.” Madara could move on. Maybe he’d get something more out of him with other questions. He was well aware that they’d done this multiple times as children and that his friend never gave up anything. It usually ended in him screaming and his friend leaving. Usually for a bit of a longer time. Madara could never tell if he just couldn’t come back or if he was still angry.

“I did not.”

“You did.” Madara started then thought back to the previous conversation. No he had not. He’d implied but he never said so outright. “Not.” Madara finished reluctantly. This was exactly the issue he always had when having conversations like this. It was difficult to get straight answers out of his friend. “Hashirama said they didn’t lock people up for their protection. Other than grounding kids and ordering sick people to stay in the hospital. Mito even said the entire thought was ridiculous.” He would get answers like that.

His friend hummed but didn’t otherwise reply.

“Are you not going to deny that?”

“I can’t deny that someone said what he said. I wasn’t there and I wouldn’t know what he said. It’s pointless to deny something you don’t know.”

Madara was stunned for a second before he realized exactly what had been said. His friend wasn’t talking about the content of what Hashirama said but just about what it was that Hashirama said. Sometimes Madara thought he picked his friends on being annoying.

The albino got a slightly faraway look in his eyes. The look that Madara had come to recognize as I must leave and indeed a couple of seconds later Madara’s suspicion was confirmed. “I have to leave.”

“Are you going to leave a date for me this time?” Madara groused. His friend had sometimes done that but it was not often.

“I’ll try the day after tomorrow at noon, but I can’t promise that.”

Madara blinked and blinked again.

“Please, don’t tell anyone about this.”

“I know, I know.”

A small grimace. “I’ll miss you.”

Madara was standing there for a good ten minutes before he could move again. This was the first time his friend had ever said he’d miss him.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone I hope you liked the chapter.   
> I use Thursday's to upload something random and as such I might not update this regularly. Meaning I might upload one-shots in-between. But since I currently don't have any finished one-shots I uploaded this. But I'll probably update at least once every three weeks probably more often. As soon as I finish writing my multi chapter story I think I'll move it to Tuesdays and Saturdays. But I promise I will finish it.


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